Norwich man sentenced to nearly 9 years after pleading guilty to heroin charge

Published February 07. 2018 5:46PM

A federal judge sentenced a Norwich man to 106 months — just under nine years — in prison Wednesday after he pleaded guilty to drug and gun-related charges that stemmed from a 2016 search of his apartment, where police found heroin, cocaine and equipment used to process and package narcotic drugs for sale.

U.S. District Judge Vanessa L. Bryant sentenced Ramael Artis, 36, to prison time followed by five years of supervised release.

Police found the drugs in Artis' Norwich apartment during a court-authorized search on March 15, 2016. Police with the FBI's Northern Connecticut Safe Streets Task Force Police and three local departments also found during an investigation that Artis traded heroin to get four handguns between July 2015 and March 2016.

Artis, who has been in jail since his arrest, pleaded guilty in October to one count of possession of heroin with intent to distribute and one count of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime.